


Skin Deep

by Pen_worms



Category: Bloodhaven
Genre: Blood, Emetophobia, Gen, Gore, Intoxication, Violence, abuse ment, alchohol ment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-18 11:10:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19333360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pen_worms/pseuds/Pen_worms
Summary: Something is wrong.





	Skin Deep

_Distant cries from the beasts echo through the trees all around you. Their high-pitched wailing pierces your ears, sending a shiver through you that makes the hairs on your back stand on end, yet you continue to stand defiantly to face them with the rest of your troop. The damned things have you all surrounded now and you feel a gnawing sense of helplessness as you’re forced to wait for the creatures to make their next move. The village that you call home is a painfully small one surrounded by forests on the outskirts of the Cinderhallovian kingdom and its location means you do not get to enjoy the luxury of royal protection. That was the risk you willingly took when you urged your family to settle here. In your mind anything was better than forking over your riches to a monarch that prided themselves on isolation and poor communication. A complete joke of a system. The animals here were all honest and hardworking folks...much easier to live among than the pampered individuals within the kingdom’s border. Yes, this has always been the best solution. You flinch as another screech fills the air. You distinctly remember the disapproving glance your wife shot you as you spoke to some of the locals to get an idea of the area and the perks of being “off the grid” as your two kids playfully described it. Perhaps when all of this was over you could recount that moment and laugh about it together. Your stomach clenches up and you let out a shaky breath you hadn’t realized you’d been holding. You managed to hole your family up in the cottage on time; down in the cellar, just as you’d practiced many times before, but that didn’t stop your mind from suddenly displaying their mangled corpses to you; tossed haphazardly among the dirt and spilling over with maggots. A bead of sweat rolls down your face. There is no use denying it. If your family is slaughtered tonight it would all be your fault._

 _The screeches sound off again, but much closer this time. They were taunting you at this point, they had to be. Realistically you knew you were all laughably under equipped to fend off any attackers, especially ones of this caliber, but you all reason that it’s better to go out fighting than not try at all. Who knows? Maybe if you played your cards right you could even...kill one of them? The thought excites you. You hadn’t even noticed that you’d begun to rock in place, full of nervous energy for what was to come. If you did die tonight, you only hope to be afforded a quick and painless death and for your family to be spared, but if your intuition serve you correctly these creatures were merciless ones who wouldn’t be sated until every last one of you was wiped clean from the earth. You muster up the courage to take one last look at the animals around you. One of them has his head bowed and his mouth moves in what you can only guess to be a silent prayer. You can’t remember the last time you stepped foot in a church. Another one clenches and unclenches her front paws constantly, slowly scoring a dip into the soil. You’re positive the visual of all of you huddled together is a pitiful one, but you can’t help but momentarily feel a sense of pride swell in your chest. Yes you aren’t much, but against all odds you’re readily risking your lives to protect the ones you love and this village you painstakingly built from the ground up. You’re fighting to protect the history and the memories this area possesses and to ensure the culmination of many more. This is where your kids will grow up and potentially have children of their own. You can’t let them erase you. You won’t let them erase you._  
  
_You stand there for a few more minutes that stretch into what feels like an eternity before you realize that the screeching has stopped. The others around you tense up and perk their ears, showing signs that they’ve caught onto this fact as well. It is not characteristic of a predator to suddenly lose interest in its prey, especially prey that is outmatched and most likely outnumbered, so the quiet only serves to worsen your nerves. Letting your guard down now would be a death wish, so you instead opt to sniff out the air for any stray scents while suggesting for everyone else to do the same. Every ounce of your concentration is strained trying to figure out what the beasts are playing at until you catch something out of the corner of your eye. The ground had slowly began to bulge unnaturally near the foot of one of your comrades and you stand in a stupor while your brain works overtime to process what’s going on. Suddenly, it hits you and your eyes widen. You had to give the demons some credit; they really go above and beyond for a chance to feed. As you open your mouth to yell a warning, the ground erupts and you hear a yelp of surprise turn into a choked scream as one of the creatures bursts from the ground and punctures the throat of the dog standing right next to you with blade-like claws. The rest of you whip around to face it in a blind panic, and it takes everything within you to not buckle over from horror when the dust settles._  
  
_You’ve never seen one in the flesh before, only glimpsed them in your mind through tales recounted to you around the warmth of a fire, but no amount of prep could have prepared you for what lay before you. Its face was that of a creature that seemed to be familiar to you, yet unfamiliar at the same time. It was canine-like to an extant and covered in a thin layer of fur, but that’s where the similarities stopped. Pincer-like teeth extruded from its mouth and foamy saliva hung to the corners of its lips. It turned to look at you with large sunken black eyes that seemed to consider you with an insatiable hunger. It’s long arms; too long, came to its side and finger-like claws at last half the length of your body or more, topped them off. Its stomach bulged out unnaturally from underneath it and you could just make out the silhouette of some type of thick warm colored liquid sloshing around inside of it which made the whole thing reek of a familar metallic scent. Dear God...you hoped with every fiber of your being that it wasn’t what you thought it was. Unfortunately in the same breath, the beast eagerly confirmed your fears. It closed it’s long claws around the head of its prey; your fallen friend, and lifted him to its face. You let out a sound of disgust as a long tongue began to snake out of the creature’s mouth. It had a sharp barb at the tip that settled quickly into the throat of your comrade. The proboscis-like organ then began to pulse in a rhythmic manner and to your horror, you could see the devil’s stomach expand as it gorged itself on blood from your fallen ally. You feel a wave of nausea wash over you and choke down bile that rises to the top of your throat. As you watch it drain it’s prey, you can’t help but selfishly bask in the thought that it wasn’t you in its claws, but was being spared really a blessing? With one less member in your ranks, the responsibility left on you to defend the village feels even more real and the image of your family piled together in the dark of the basement counting on you to protect them almost makes you consider putting yourself at the mercy of the monster. Instead you take the route that’s expected of you and snarl at the beast while looking around your troop for support, but the rest of them aren’t even regarding you. They are still watching, with faces twisted in horror at the nightmare that has taken form right before their eyes. You realize you alone will have to take a stand, and before you convince yourself otherwise, you lunge at the creature biting down as hard as you can on its arm._  
  
_Its skin is much rougher than you thought it would be, but you still manage to do some damage as it immediately drops its meal and lets out a sound that’s a mix of both surprise and pain as its tongue snaps back into its mouth. As if on cue, more of the creatures pour out of the trees from all sides of you, their pitch-black eyes gleaming from the reflected light of the evening sky. Yelps from the rest of your group mixed with that of the beasts quickly fill the air, but you have no time to register that. You focus all of your energy on hanging on for dear life as the demon resorts to shaking its arm vigorously in an attempt to dislodge you. Your body is flung around like a rag doll and your brain begins to feel like mush as it rattles in your skull. You close your eyes and continue to lock your jaws firmly on its arm. At this point you are convinced you couldn't let go even if you wanted to; Your mouth is sore from how hard you’re clenching your teeth. Properly enraged now, the creature suddenly lurches forward and closes its jaws around your side in a last ditch effort to remove you.You feel the skin around your leg begin to separate from your body and your side starts to feel damp and warm. Your hold on its arm loosens considerably. Then it hits you; an inferno of pain, an unimaginable pain against your side like someone shoved burning coals into your flank until the skin started to bubble over. It lasted for nothing more than an instant however, before your vision starts to fail you and the world around you becomes more and more like that of a distant memory. Curiously, your wife’s disappointing glance is the last thought that pops into your mind before you finally give out from pure exhaustion and welcome the darkness that has begun to creep into the corners of your vision._

»»————- 𓆣 ————-««  


You jolt awake. Your breath comes out in short, ragged, bursts and you whip your head around desperately trying to take in your surroundings with wild eyes. Your brain moves faster than your eyes can process and everything looks like a featureless blur which only serves to panic you even more. You close your eyes, plunging everything into a familiar darkness and you dig your claws into the ground to try and calm yourself down...to anchor yourself. Your breathing eventually quells as the dark envelops your mind and your thoughts becomes less foggy. When your eyes open again you’re immediately able to take in more detail than before. You start over.

The first detail that strikes out to you is how uncomfortably….bright everything is. You shrink down and squint your eyes while taking a peek at the sky. It’s an overcast day today with no sign of the sun for miles. No sun. You hang on that detail for a while, not exactly sure what to make of it. You eventually reason that your eyes just need time to readjust and the sensation you’re experiencing is normal. Simple. You look around you to get a sense of your situation. The ground is covered in a thick layer of white, and you lay alone against a gnarled black tree. Similar trees dot the area around you and serve to break up the white landscape that seems to stretch onwards forever in all directions. You hear the distinct, calming ambience that normally comes with the winter months, and you shiver as a gust of bitter wind ruffles your fur. After sitting in silence for a few minutes, you decide that you’re alone for the time being and you wish you had enough context to decide if that was a good or bad thing.

You struggle in vain to try and remember something, anything about the events that led you to this situation, but you’re incapable of probing your mind without feeling faint. Frustrated, you quickly move your attention to something else before you can dwell on the concern beginning to settle in your chest. Moving. Yes, you should probably try to move your body around and once you’re properly mobile you can hopefully begin to find some answers. To your surprise, when you will your legs to extend the movement feels...extremely smooth. You expected your locomotion to be sluggish and your limbs to be sore from being curled up against a weather-beaten tree for what you could only guess to be hours, but you easily hop to your feet and bow your front half forward in a large stretch. All things considered you feel really...really good. A sensation of warmth courses through you and you smile; you aren’t exactly sure why, it just...feels like the right thing to do. The smile quickly fades however when you hear distant crunching in the snow. Your mind races and you quickly scramble behind the tree and crouch down with widened eyes. Luckily the tree is just thick enough to offer you cover from whatever is trudging your way, and as you sit in alert waiting for the source of the sound to show itself, another sound hits your ears first. Gentle weeping...so soft that you initially mistook it for the winter breeze. It grows louder with every crunch you hear in the snow and for some reason it fills your heart with deep longing for something that you couldn’t quite place.

Eventually your eyes rest on two animals slowly moving in your direction. One had their head bent down and couldn’t stop shaking as sobs racked their entire frame, and the other one surveyed the area in silence. As they drew closer to your tree, the silent one promptly stops and looks at the other with an expression you could only read to be...disappointment? Sadness? They are close enough that you can see that the crying one is a lady. At the glance, she seems to completely lose herself as she collapses into snow and lets out a scream that chills your bones. Her companion, which you now see is a male; immediately crouches down at her side and whispers to her gently while caressing her. This action angers you, and it takes everything within you not to let a growl escape your throat. You don’t want him touching her, or looking at her, in fact no one should...h-. You clench your eyes shut and shake your head, horrified at your possessiveness over this animal you’ve never seen before. Well at least you think you haven’t? The more you stare at her the more you’re convinced that she holds some importance to you. You crave her presence so badly...there must be significance to that.

Before you know it your body is moving, anything to be closer to her...that face...her voice… who is she? Why is she making you feel this way? At the sound of your pawsteps the male looks up at you and he takes on a look of horror that slowly morphs into an incredulous stare, while the girl manages to raise her head between weeping. As her eyes fall on you, she quiets immediately and simply takes you in. It stays like that for a few seconds; all of you staring at each other in dead silence. At last a smile begins to form on the girl’s face and then she laughs. It is a light, fluttery, sound that you decide then and there is a sound you want to hear for the rest of your life, and then you realize that you’ve had this thought before. The memory blossoms in your mind like the most delicate flower and you find yourself running to her. She returns the gesture and when you meet, you pick her up and spin her in your arms. Your wife!! Your perfect wife! How could you ever forget the animal you chose to marry! She buries her face into your chest and starts to sob again while hungrily drinking in your scent. You look down at her and are taken aback by how small she looks nestled against you. You don’t remember her being so vulnerable. So fragile. She put so much trust in you that she came to you without even thinking! It would be so easy now for you to just lean down and sink your teeth into her throat.

You loudly exhale and stumble back from her as she looks on at you with concern dotting her eyes. Your breath comes out shakily and you feel sweat begin to form on your head. The male; who up until that point had been watching you both with an unreadable expression, speaks up and suggests you all head back to the village before another snowstorm hits. Your wife agrees and also adds that you’re probably exhausted and need to rest. You wish you could tell her that you got all the rest you’d ever need for a lifetime, but you can’t seem to will yourself to form words at the moment. You simply give a curt nod and follow along behind as the two lead you back home.

The trip is taken mostly in awkward silence, as the male has been somewhat cold to you ever since you unexpectedly “rose from the dead” and you figure your wife is still pretty shaken from...well everything. She gently presses her body against yours for the duration of the trip, and the small patch of warmth from her fur brushing on yours speaks volumes. The small talk that does happen comes from her quietly recounting the events that led to your separation. She mentions these creatures; Screechers she calls them, and how one of them took you away. Luckily one of your neighbors managed to wound it pretty badly before it slid back into the burrow it came from, but others were sure they saw it clutching your limp body beforehand. She stifles a sob as she says the last part. You lick the top of her head and assure her that everything is fine now, that you aren't going anywhere. You tell her that you feel pretty great in fact, all things considered. This seems to calm her and she falls silent, just enjoying your presence for the remainder of the walk.

When the village finally comes into view you instantly note the state it’s in. Some of the cottages aren’t even standing anymore, and there are still remnants of debris and signs of a scrimmage scored into the ground. You suppose some of the houses must have been destroyed in the attack, and your mind then snaps to how many were killed. Before you can ask your wife, doors start to open as animals curiously step out of their houses to get a better look at you. A lot of them stare at you in surprise at first and then begin muttering amongst themselves while shooting you looks of admiration. The attention makes your skin crawl. God, wait. You yelp and suddenly clutch the side of your neck. You could’ve sworn you...no. **No.** _Everything is fine. Everything is normal._ You set your paw down and eye your wife who is looking at you with worry on her face. _You have to get it together, you’re scaring her._ You smile as a calming gesture and nuzzle her. What is happening to you? You’ve been acting so strange lately and at this point it’s really starting to get to you...Your thoughts are interrupted at the sound of high pitched cries of relief, and you turn towards the source in time to see two smaller animals bound towards you. You tense up as they embrace you and cry into your fur. One boy, one girl. You felt like you should know them, you felt you should be just as happy to see them, but you couldn’t feel anything for them at all. Still you kneel down to great them and try to put on an air of happiness to match their own. They kept squealing something... dad? Wait, were these your kids? Why couldn’t you recognize them? They continue to hop around you absolutely ecstatic about your return and oblivious to your apathy, their shrill voices assaulting your ears and making your fur bristle. One of them, the boy, gets close to embrace you again, and it takes everything within you not to lunge at him and snap his neck. The thought sickens you immediately after it enters your mind and you’re left shaking as he leans in close for his hug. You gaze at him blankly as he pulls away and then look to your wife who is beaming at the sight of her family all together again. You wish you shared that enthusiasm.

Over the course of the next few weeks you are filled more and more with these urges and you notice how much harder it gets to control yourself as they progress. A neighbor calls you over to thank you for your bravery in fending off the attack and blesses your family with eternal happiness. You hold back. Your children ask you to tuck them in at night and make you assure them that no more monsters will come. You hold back. Your wife wakes up screaming in the night, her mind haunted with night terrors ever since the evening she thought she lost you. She clutches you and sobs uncontrollably in your arms. _You hold back._ Day after day it is the same and you’re exhausted from forcing yourself to stay in control of your own body. You gave up trying to figure out on your own what was wrong with you, and frankly you weren’t about to confide in anyone else either. The weeks also brought with them intense paranoia, agitation, and hunger. God the hunger. You do your best to avoid interacting with anyone but your immediate family if you can help it, and even then you haven’t been your best to them. You’ve snapped at your wife and kids multiple times and they’ve continued being nothing but patient with you, reasoning that the attack has left some sickness in your mind that continues to plague you. On top of that you’ve been eating like a pig, gorging yourself on any scraps of food you can find in the house and greedily devouring your wife's cooking. Nothing seemed to make you full, and the food you did eat began to blend together and become tasteless mush after a while. Still, you welcomed any source of sustenance you could find. Truthfully what you wanted more than anything was just an opportunity to let loose. One chance to act on your urges. Just one. They say if you wish for something hard enough it will come true by the sheer power of thought alone. It is a stupid, baseless saying because if it were true, half your village wouldn’t have been reduced to widows in one night, but in your case you felt that was the only thing that could explain how this upcoming coincidence played so neatly in your favor. At long last you are given a potential outlet when a passing traveler entered your village to camp for the night.  
  
You first noticed him when a group began to congregate outside and the sound of chatter filled the air. Curious, you felt compelled to exit your small home for the first time in days to see what was going on. Your hearing had become much more acute over the weeks; a cause of your growing agitation you were sure, and like the other changes you’d been experiencing, you simply chose not to question it at this point. That being said, you had no trouble listening in on the commotion and from the sound of it, the visitor was talking to a few residents and inquiring if he could rest for the night. The others seemed unsure, and you could understand their wariness at letting a stranger sleep among them so soon after an attack. You couldn’t lose this chance though. You’d become something of a small celebrity in the village because of your heroism; as did the others who managed to survive the attack. (Which you later found out from your wife that there were two others besides you.) Your words had influence behind them now. Your voice mattered. You feel a warm feeling flow through you, one that you hadn’t felt in a long time and just like the first time it happened, you smile. When you open your mouth to speak, even you are startled because your voice doesn’t sound like your own. It dripped out of your mouth like honey and premeditated the air with confidence. You reason with the others that the visitor looks tired and harmless and there’s no reason why you should forget your manners in the face of adversity. You walk up to the stranger and hold out a paw. He grabs it firmly in his own and shakes it while thanking you profusely and assuring you that he only plans to take up space for one night, just enough to get his strength up. You nod your head and look around at everyone else daring them to go against you. They all just look amongst each other nervously, but don’t object. You wonder if this is what it felt like to be a king, to have everyone just naturally fall in line with your whims. You won’t lie, it felt good.

With that sorted out, the crowd begins to disperse and the stranger sets to work on putting up a small tent to prepare for the night. You make sure not to take your eyes off of him from that point on. The town had been busy with reconstruction since you’ve been back and the sound of fences being nailed up and brick and mortar being utilized had almost driven you mad while laying alone in your home, but today you joined in. Anything to keep you outside. The day went by fairly quickly as you tirelessly stacked bricks upon each other over and over again to build the foundation of a new home, and before you knew it the sun was low in the horizon. Everyone else had started to retreat into their homes to secure themselves for the night, and eventually you did too when your wife came outside to fetch you, but you didn’t plan to sleep any time soon. Your night had just begun. You lay in bed with your wife, staring at the ceiling and listening to the sound of her breathing. Hopefully tonight her mind would be kind to her and afford her with a good nights rest, if she woke up and you weren’t there then you’d have some uncomfortable explaining to do. Hours passed as you lay completely still, and when you were sure she was in a deep sleep, you slid out of the bed and made your way downstairs.

The night air was crisp and full of a chorus of crickets all playing just for you. You took in a deep breath as your eyes rested on the tent. No one else was out tonight, everything was perfect. You strode over swiftly and peeked through the single slit on the front. You could see him laying there; his chest rising and falling slowly as he slept on, completely unaware of your presence. You had no real plan on how you were going to do this, you didn’t even know fully what you wanted to do, but your body moved on its own at this point. You gently shake him awake and he jumps up and yelps, eyes wide with fear. You shush him and tell him it’s just you, nothing to be afraid of. You then joke and say that he looks like he’s seen a monster or something. He eyes you a bit warily but chuckles at your jest and greets you warmly, perhaps a bit too warmly, remembering you as the one who vouched for him earlier. At this point the strong smell of alcohol wafting from his breath hits your nostrils and you wrinkle your nose and resist the urge to gag. Ah, that explains the warm reception. It’s almost humorous how everything is playing right into your favor. You simply tell him that you want to show him something that might interest him, but he’ll have to follow you. It is a clumsy plan, but you hope the stranger is intoxicated to the point that his wits have left him. He bounces up enthusiastically, dipping down into a stretch while agreeing to follow loudly. You growl at him to quiet down and take a peek around before beginning to walk towards your destination. He stumbles along behind you, happily babbling to himself about nothing in particular. The forest looms closer to you as you walk, and he asks you if that’s where you meant to go. You stay silent and part the trees to enter. He follows, but from this point he is quiet as well. You know you need to act quickly before the walk sobers him up and he catches onto what you’re doing. You continue to trudge deeper into the forest until you’re sure you’re out of earshot from the village and then you suddenly stop. This is it, the moment you’ve dreamed of for weeks now was a reality. You feel absolutely giddy from excitement. He looks around in confusion and then at you. He asks what you wanted to show him. You must have had a wild look in your eye because he stumbles backwards a bit when you turn to meet his gaze. You take a step towards him and he takes another back. _Go on. Do it._ You’re actively shaking now from the adrenaline beginning to course inside you. _Quickly. Do it now._ A growl forms in your throat and foam begins to form at the corners of your mouth. You want nothing more than to stop thinking and just act, but something holds you back, something makes you hesitate. Somewhere deep inside you know this is isn’t right. God, what are you doing? This is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

**DO IT. KILL HIM.**

__

_It was at that point that you figured it out. Everything suddenly made sense. The adversion to light, the urges, the feeling of something crawling in your skin, the unrelenting hunger. In my haste I pushed too hard and finally exposed myself to you. You let out a moan of despair, but it’s futile at this point. At the end of the day I am the one that has the control and you are just a blank canvas for me to act out my whims. I force you to lunge at the stranger but that’s it. I don’t push you from here, because I know you wanted this just as much as me. You just needed someone like me to set the chips into play. The poor thing never had a chance. He lets out a scream as you knock him to the ground, but you quickly rip into his throat turning it into an incomprehensible gurgle. You kill him almost instantly, and then you feast. We feast. For the first time in a long time, your meal is bursting with flavor. In fact, it’s the best thing you’ve ever eaten in your life. Immediately after you get your fill you retch, expelling most of the flesh from your system. This does not surprise me. It will take your body a while to adapt itself to consume something so...unconventional, but luckily I got what I needed from it and I’m willing to wait however long it takes. I instruct you to clean yourself as best as you can and then I let you know the plan. We will enter the town tomorrow morning and tell everyone that we took a late night walk around the village, but we were suddenly attacked by the visitor in a drunken rage and sadly had to kill him in self defense. Of course they will all believe us. What reason would we have to lie? We are the talk of the town, a living legend. Every last one of the animals there aspires to be someone like us one day. After that we will lie in wait until the next opportunity presents itself to us, which it will. Again and again. We will slowly pick off every animal in that village, we will have an excuse for it every time, and they will believe us. We will be untouchable. This time when you smile, it actually manages to surprise me because it was all on your own._

**Author's Note:**

> This was just meant to serve as a fun exploration of a parasitic relationship as they exist and function in Bloodhaven. Just like the vessels they occupy, parasites in Bloodhaven possess unique personalities and symptoms that vary between each specimen. The parasite in this particular example took a more direct approach, only seeing its host as an extension of itself to acquire sustenance and nothing more. When inhabiting the body of another creature it is near impossible for some sort of relationship NOT to occur, seeing as your lives are so entertwined with one another, so other parasites may chose to exhibit a more loving relationship with their host...some even bordering on domestic. (Gay worm rights) ANYWAYS!! That’s all I got for now. Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed!!! <3


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